The Brief History of the New-York Coffeehouse Company Limited

At the turn of the 20th century, Budapest was famous for its Coffeehouse Culture. One of the most popular Café was the New-York Coffeehouse; today, it is remembered for its literary life. After 20 years of operation, in 1913, new people bought the tenant’s rights and established the first Coffeehouse joint-stock company in Hungary, called New-York coffeehouse Company Limited. This paper aims to analyze the operation of the Company in relation to the stock transfers, analysis of its profitability, and the changes in the transformations in the shares. The main goal was to figure out how the profitability and the stock transfers were connected to the contemporary social and economic circumstances. The years of the World Wars, Revolutions, the Great Depression, and the cultural/social life of the twenties had their deep effects on the life of the Company. The changes were perceptible for the public, too. Many articles were published about the hardships of the Company and the changing atmosphere of the Coffeehouse. These were different; not all of them damaged the interest of the Company Limited equally. Still, the difficulties influenced the stock transfers, profitability, and the everyday life of the Managers and Shareholders. These circumstances are parallel to the changes of the Company.

The Viti-viniculture Sector of the Festetics Estate at the Beginning of the 19th Century

At the end of the 18th century, only 3-4 % of the cultivated area was covered with vineyards. However, the importance of viticulture was not proportionate with the extent of its territorial size - due to the poor public health conditions, most of the waters were non-drinkable, so people usually drunk wines with a 4-5 % alcohol content. The wine production was 13-17 million hectoliters in the first third of the 19th century. During this period, several large estates switched from the former taxation approach to income-oriented market production, in which winemaking played a key role, as it had been an important vital market product before. According to Kaposi, lordships’ cellar economy of lordships was engaged in the storage and treatment operations of wine community customs duty, ninth wine, the supply of wine to inns and public houses, and other wine sales.1 In our study, we examined the most important characteristics of the viticulture and wine sector of the Keszthely-based Festetics estate in the period between 1785-1807, both in terms of production and profitability. We concluded that the share of income from wine within the total income decreased at the beginning of the 1800s, besides high production fluctuation characterized the production of lordships as well as production of the estate; however, the production of the lordships could compensate each other to confirm the diversified production in space.

From the Manorial Village to the Regional Center. The Economic Development of Barcs in the Period of Dualism

At the very beginning of my essay I point out that what kind of natural and economical conditions Barcs have had in the 19th centuries. This is important becouse I had to place Barcs into this medium, which in the beginning of the 19th was a simple manorial village situated in the flood plain of the Drava. The Drava river had a great impact on the improvement of the village. This little manorial village by the end of the century became one of the determinative villages in the region of southern Transdanubia. I show why was the location of the village so importan at that time. As a vehicular interchange and with its warehouse capacity by the beginning of the 19th century it was significant too. There were five railway lines that are met in Barcs in the begining of the 20th century. So it was a significant vehicular intersection at that time. Furthermore after Kaposvár it was the second biggest industrial centre of the county. By this time it was famous about its wood and mill industries across Europe. Moreover it had a regional centre role at different types of food industries. I introduce to what kind of economical processies and infrastructural investments helped the large economical developement of the village. At the end of my essay I want to show the series of events

The Role and Possibilities of Hungarian Narrow-Gauge Railways in Tourism

Since the 1980’s almost all of the the Hungarian narrow-gauge railway lines made a complete change of function. In the following decade with a few exceptions the freight was completely abolished and replaced by tourism. We need to address several factors if we want to determine the tourism potential of a particular narrow-gauge railway. One of these is accessibility, which shows what extra effort a tourist needs to make to get to a particular attraction. It is not enough just to look at accessibility, we also need to look how narrow-gauge railways can get involved in the tourism system. In a tourism approach we can examine points of interest from several perspectives. The interdependent material conditions of tourism include basic infrastructure, attraction and tourism infrastructure. The basic infrastructure in tourism means the existence of conditions that are essential to see the attraction. Several narrow-gauge railways also play a role in the basic infrastructure, however, their most significant role is the dynamic infrastructure. The narrow-gauge railway transports tourists to the tourist attraction, or due to its nature, attracts tourists. Most of the Hungarian narrow-gauge railway fall into the category of dynamic infrastructure. Attraction is difficult to define, because there are a lot of subjective elements, but most of the Hungarian narrow-gauge railways we can definitely highlight and call as real attractions. It is important to talk about seasonality. Not all of them offer the same experience in summer as in winter, they are not the same attractions in all seasons. By tourist milieu we mean the attraction of the destination, the totality of the experiences gained there.

Die Vermögenswirtschaft der Stadt im Zeitalter des Dualismus

In the annuel budgets of the city of Pécs between 1872 and 1914, revenues from city property were divided into five groups. The first group included revenues from the city’s property – the hundreds of acres of Megyer-puszta, urban pastures, urban factories, and urban buildings. The second group included revenues from the city’s 4,262 cadastral hungarian acres forests. The third group included interest on the city’s cash and securities. The fourth group included excise, duties and fees levied by the city with the permission of the state. The most important of these were incomes from the sale of spirits, wine, beer, the holding of markets and fairs, and the use of roads and railways. The fifth group included the income that arose after the pub law was acquired by the state in 1890: state compensation and various city tax supplements. Overall, revenues from urban property in the years 1870-1880 approached, and sometimes even exceeded, 60% of budget revenues. In the 1890s, their proportion fell below 40%, increased to nearly 50% by the turn of the century, and then gradually decreased to about 30% by 1914. The result of urban wealth management has been future urbanization and infrastructure investiments, with the inevitable indebtedness at a disadvantage.

The Innovative Managerial Role of Jenő de Polnay as the Key Element to the Success of the Atlantica Sea Navigation Company within the Hungarian Maritime Fleet (1907–1914)

The Atlantica Sea Navigation Company was the most innovative of the Hungarian sea navigation companies. In my study, I shall present the company’s operations from its founding in 1907 until the beginning of the Great War in 1914. I shall greatly emphasise the analysis of how the company led by Jenő Polnay de Tiszasüly was able to grow in only 7 years into a shipping company that shipped with 12 modern steamships. Thanks to his previous entrepreneurial experience Polnay managed to join the Hungarian State and the Austro-Hungarian Bank to found the company. After this, he had British shipyards design steamships that were able to transport large capacity timber at low bearing depth. He then concluded beneficial deals with the Hungarian State Railways and the Transylvanian and Russian suppliers. The first application of the ’quick despatch’ principle in Hungary is also bound to the name Polnay. Atlantica shipped cheaper if the ships were loaded swifter. Based on the sources of the Rijeka State Archives, I shall investigate the question how the innovative managerial skills of Jenő de Polnay attributed to the efficiency of Atlantica Co. in goods transportation and how the company became the most successful Hungarian tramp trade company of the beginning of the 20th century.

Land Policy in Hungary 1944–1967

The topic of this study is land legislation and its implementation in Hungary between 1944 and 1967. In the paper, the different types of communist land policy methods were analysed, focusing on abolishing private land ownership and private land use. In this context, the fundamental elements and development of land legislation, furthermore basic trends and changes in land structure are assessed. The land law was not codified in the communist dictatorship, but the attempts of such codification are explored in the paper, which occurred during the “new course” (1953/1954–1955), started around the revolution in the autumn of 1956, and a third in 1962 after mass collectivization. As a result of political change and the aftermath of the revolution, private farmers received twice land back in private ownership and private use. The analysis points out that strengthening private land ownership had a better chance in the “new course” than after the revolution in 1956. Land transfer and lease were restricted from 1948 but increased between 1953 and 1955, and again between 1956 and 1959 during the relaxed agrarian policy. The regulations were implemented in a radical fashion between 1948/1949 and 1953 generally, and legislation on land use, land consolidation, and “waiver” multiplied efforts to abolish private farms. Because of this reason, the idea of the gradual transformation of the countryside was abandoned, “kulaks” were discriminated and their estates liquidated. Imre Nagy and others recognized the paradox situation and initiated corrections, which paved the way and did result in a whole new economic policy in July 1953. On the other hand, after 1956, the new regime set a new upper limit of private farms and started another wave of expropriation. The records indicate that the main method of taking private land in state ownership was “waiver” of land and expropriation until 1967. Private land ownership was finally abolished by creating cooperative ownership. The study can be considered a case study to the account of the legal, economic, and social history of the communist dictatorship.

The Network of Financial Institutions and Capital Accumulation in Vas County in the Second Half of the 19th Century

The way financial institutions emerged in Hungary was just the inverse of the one followed in Western Europe. In Western Europe capital intensive banks developed first and savings banks rendering services to people with more modest financial means appeared later. In the second half of the 19th century a new bank type (Credit mobilier) was created, which combined the commercial and development banking activities. In Hungary the first financial institution got established in 1842 as a company limited by shares, and the banks founded subsequent to 1867 fashioned their business policies in this vein. In Vas county, situated in West-Transdanubia, and in its county- seat, Szombathely, capital accumulation strengthened by leaps and bounds after a difficult start and the emergence of financial institutions was largely supported by the enactment of the Commercial Code in 1875. In the first business year following the crisis of 1873 already 16 banks and savings banks operated in Vas county, with the number of financial institutions reaching 27 by the turn of the century. Between 1874 and 1899 their number increased to almost two and a half times this figure, and in settlements with populations between one thousand and three thousand people two, in larger settlements three, and in the county seat five new financial institutions had been founded by the turn of the century. The increase in the initial capital saw a nearly eleven times increase, the balance sheet total expanded 6.3 times and the total cash turnover of Vas county financial institutions amounted to 178,414,263 Austro-Hungarian Krones in 1899. Within the county’s territory microregional money markets evolved. No data have so far been found regarding the turnover undoubtedly realised between such microregions for the time being.

The Social Composition of Medical Students at the Erzsébet University in the 1920s

The study presents the social composition of students who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the Erzsébet University in Pozsony (Bratislava) from 1918 and then after a temporary stay in Budapest, in Pécs from the autumn of 1923 until the academic year 1929/1930. The article specifically examines the output of university education, excluding students who dropped out or transferred to another institution. It presents the recruitment and mobility of the student body by statistical analysis of the religion, place of birth and father/guardian occupation of the medical graduates of the selected period. The statistical survey shows a large number of Israelites and those born in Budapest. The occupational composition of the father/guardian largely consists of three groups: public and private officials – professionals – traders and large business owners. A separate subchapter deals with the changes resulting from the numerus clausus law in the composition of medical students in Pécs, as well as the attitude of the university in Pécs and its impact on the Hungarian higher education market. The clear goal of the university management was to ensure the survival of the university by increasing the number of students. The main reason for applying numerus clausus as loosely as possible was also the fact that the number of Christian students remained low, often failing to fill in the allotted numbers. Finally, the paper presents possible further research opportunities.

Large Scale Manufacturing Businesses in Nagykanizsa at the Turn of the 20th Century

This study deals with the industrialisation of the largest market centre of the Southwest Transdanubian Region of Hungary. Nagykanizsa was an agrarian town for a long time; however, a quick increase in trade began from the 1830s. The industry showed small plant traits. The industrialisation started in the 1880s in this region too. Newness was the mass-producing mechanised manufacturing. The manufacturing came into existence in three ways. The first case was when the already existing small plants were developed into factories due to the good trading opportunities. In the second case traders and craftsmen established businesses based on local innovations; therefore, new industries were acclimatised. And the third case was the creation of corporations which presumed large amount of capital. The capital of the large-scale industrial businesses mostly came from previous merchant activity and most of the business founders were merchants before. The evolution of the manufacturing industry was perceptible on every level of contemporary economic and social life. More and more labour migrated from agriculture to industries. Financing the local businesses gave a stable future for the local banks. The increasing number of factories aided local construction industry. Due to the development, industry became the most important sector in the structure of the economy of the town before World War I.